Aronian wins Amber for a second time in a row

3/26/2009 – Looks like he is pretty good at the blindfold/rapid thing. Armenian GM Levon Aronian won the 18th Amber Tournament, after winning the 17th edition last year. Two draws against Veselin Topalov secured the half-point overall victory. Equal second were Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, with Magnus Carlsen half a point behind. Pictures by John Nunn in our final report.

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The 18th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament, organized by the Association
Max Euwe in Monaco, is taking place from March 14 (first round) to March 26
(last round) at the Palais de la Mediterranée, splendidly located on
the famous Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The total prize fund is € 216,000.
The rate of play is 25 minutes per game per player. With every move made in
the blindfold games 20 seconds is added to the clock, with every move made in
the rapid games 10 seconds is added. Every day four sessions are played: two
blindfold and two rapid games. The first session starts at 14.30h. The fourth
session finishes around 20.00h. (Note: the final round on March 26 starts at
12.30h. March 18 and 23 are rest days).

Round eleven: Aronian breaks away as co-leaders stumble

Round eleven: Blindfold Chess

Round eleven: Rapid Chess

Morozevich-Kamsky

1-0

Kamsky-Morozevich

½-½

Karjakin-Ivanchuk

1-0

Ivanchuk-Karjakin

0-1

Kramnik-Leko

1-0

Leko-Kramnik

0-1

Topalov-Aronian

½-½

Aronian-Topalov

½-½

Wang Yue-Anand

½-½

Anand-Wang Yue

1-0

Radjabov-Carlsen

1-0

Carlsen-Radjabov

1-0

With two draws in the final round Levon Aronian has won the 11th Amber Blindfold
and Rapid Tournament. The Armenian grandmaster, who also triumphed in last year’s
Amber, survived scary moments in his blindfold game against Veselin Topalov,
but then comfortably drew the rapid game to take the title. Second place was
shared by Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. The World Champion defeated Wang
Yue 1½-½, while his predecessor routed Peter Leko 2-0.

In the blindfold competition three players shared first place. Magnus Carlsen,
who had long dominated the competition, lost his last game and this allowed
Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik to catch up with him.
The rapid competition also ended in a three-way tie for first. This year the
best rapid players were Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian and Gata Kamsky. Full
bulletin report.

Pictorial impressions from Nice by John Nunn

Pleased as Punch: Alexander and son Sergey Karjakin after two lucky wins
against Ivanchuk

Apart from a win in a blitz game this was only the first time Sergey defeated
his experienced compatriot (remember his resigned reaction after he lost against
Ivanchuk in Wijk aan Zee: "I always lose against him"). It was also
the first time he played 1.d4 against him, and it took 111 move for him
to secure victory. Sergey was all smiles after the rapid game, because he won
again, following Ivanchuk’s final blunder (49.Be4+). Said Karjakin: "He
should have put it on f1 and I can never win."

What you look like after beating Peter Leko 2-0

What you look like after you have lost to Kramnik 0-2

Vladimir Kramnik used quite an important novelty to score a crushing victory
over Peter Leko in the blindfold game. "I decided to use it as I am still
fighting for the top places," the Russian grandmaster said. He had analysed
it a long time ago, before the San Luis World Championship Tournament, and might
have used it for his match against Anand. The new move was 15.Re1, which according
to Kramnik "opens a new field for analysis".

It is interesting that White did not try Kd6 (of courst two moves earlier,
before the repetition): 45.Kd6 hxg5 46.Rb8+ Kh7 47.e8Q Rxe8 48.Rxe8 is clearly
won. Perhaps Topalov was afraid of something like 45.Kd6 Kf7 46.gxh6 Bf5 47.Rxb6
Rxe7 48.Rxb3 Rd7+ 49.Ke5 Rxd5+ 50.Kxd5 Be6+, but even after this skewer White
easily wins with his four pawns against the bishop.

After the game Aronian summarised: "He was winning, but he didn’t
see it and I escaped – as usual."

Topalov carefully examines his queen before his rapid game against Aronian

In the rapid game Aronian secured tournament victory with a brief draw in
17 moves. Once Black had equalized Topalov offered a draw, and that was an offer
Aronian had no reason to refuse.

Looks like I am pretty good at this! Lev Aronian, the winner of Amber 2008
and 2009

Very few people guessed who the mysterious guest at the Amber tournament in
Nice was, and none got it right. It is the brother of Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov.
See the similarity?

Links

The games of this event are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate
access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the
PGN games.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).